Pelosi still ‘at the table’ after Trump scuttled virus aid talks
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she’s “at the table” ready to negotiate a coronavirus aid package after President Donald Trump halted talks and left the economy reeling, his GOP allies scrambling and millions of Americans without additional support weeks before ElectionDay.
Pelosi said she told Trump’s chief negotiator, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, she is willing to consider a measure to prop up the airline industry, which is facing widespread layoffs. But that aid, she said, must go alongside broader legislation that includes the kind of COVID testing, tracing and health practices that Democrats say are needed as part of a national strategy to “crush the virus.”
“Lives are at stake,” Pelosi said at the Capitol. “This is deadly serious.”
In a stunning admission, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday he had stopped going to the White House because he disagreed with its coronavirus protocols. His last visitwasAug. 6.
“My impression was their approach to how to handle this was different from mine and what I insistedwe do in the Senate, which is towear a mask and practice social distancing,” McConnell said at a campaign stop in northernKentucky for his own reelection.
The sharpwords fromall sides after Trump lashed out at Congress come during the final weeks in a campaign year fast turning into a referendum on Trump’s handling of the pandemic.
Republican allies are peeling away from Trump, with some calling his decision to withdrawfromvirus aid talks a mistake.
Normally, the splintering could provide grounds for a robust package, but with other Republicans refusing to spend more money, it appears no relief will be coming with Americans already beginning early voting.
McConnell held outhope that “we ought to continue to talk” evenas severalof his own senators said they do not want to pass more aid. More than 212,000 Americans have died and millions more are infected with a virus that shows no signs of abating heading into what public health experts warn will be a difficult flu season and winter.
The president blew up negotiations this week when he announced his withdrawal, and then quickly reversed course and reached out for fresh aid. It all came in a head-spinning series of tweets and comments days after he returned to the White House after his hospitalization withCOVID-19.
First he told the Republican leaders in Congress on Tuesday to quit negotiating on an aid package. By Wednesdayhewas trying to bring everyone back to the table for his priority items— including $1,200 stimulus checks for almost all adult Americans.
Democrats have made it clear they will not do a piecemeal approach until the Trump administration signs off on a broader, comprehensive plan they are proposing for virus testing, tracing and other actions to stop its spread. They have scaled back a $3 trillion measure to a $2.2 trillion proposal. The WhiteHouse presented a $1.6 trillion counteroffer. Talkswere ongoing when Trump shut them down.